A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as fuel and generates a propulsive force by driving a motor using electric charge generated as the hydrogen reacts with oxygen.
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle must be equipped with a hydrogen storage system. Recently, according to global trends, 700 bar-high-pressure hydrogen storage systems representing the highest commercialization performance have been installed in a number of vehicles. As air contains components that may be damaging to a fuel cell stack, the air atmosphere in the completed hydrogen storage system must be converted to a hydrogen atmosphere. To replace the air in a tank with hydrogen, a high-pressure charging/discharging process must be repeated over six to eight hours. There is a need for a method of reducing the time or the process required to completely replace the air in a hydrogen storage system with hydrogen.
If another, faster method of ensuring hydrogen purity may be implemented, or if a portion of the existing process of enhancing the hydrogen purity may be omitted, not only can the length of the whole process be reduced, but the manufacturing cost can also be significantly reduced.